Two quick factual corrections, one of which was my fault. Cizhong is actually still in Deqin county, not Weixi, I misspoke. Second is that Benzilan is actually on the Jinsha not the Nujiang. Thanks to everyone at GoKunming for this great feature!

@ Geogramatt, there's actually a sticky little provision that the government managed to stick into the original designation for Three Parallel Rivers which says the World Heritage site only includes areas above a specific elevation (don't have the figures on me at the moment), thus actually excluding the dams from the heritage site. UNESCO has been expressing a lot of concern over the overall impact of the dams on the site, but by technicality it would be impacts that are created from outside the actual world heritage area giving UNESCO a little less footing to stand on since no dams are being built within the actual UNESCO designated area.

They've also threatened to revoke Lijiang's status multiple times over the years ever since the Chinese installed the bright neon lights on everything but it's never actually happened; I just don't think the UN has the guts to do that to the Chinese government.

Completely agree! The Exploration of Yunnan and it's updated version Yunnan South of the Clouds are quintessential resources for those of us who live and work here in Yunnan. Even as a researcher who has been coming here on and off over the past 8 years I never leave home without Goodman's guide and always find his information continually useful.

Just recently I in fact got a review back on an academic paper in which I cited him on the history of missionaries in the northwest and was told his book was an unreliable source by a reviewer, to which I responded to the editors that I completely disagreed. Goodman is by far the best non-academic person publishing on the Southwest; the Peter Hessler of Yunnan! His biography of Joseph Rock available at Mandarin Books is also incredible useful seeing as how the original biography of Rock by S.B. Sutton published in the 70's is now long out of print and incredibly expensive.

Any info regarding what will happen to the airport booking code for flights? Will it still be KMG who will Changshui get a new code?

Nice post about a great local mountain climb in Yunnan! A few words of caution though. I have climbed Haba and while it is indeed techically non-technical (pardon the pun), the last section in entirely on the glacier and as noted indeed reaquires somewhat skilled crampon use/walking. Over tha past several years a number of people have indeed died because they were inexperienced walking on ice or possibly didn't know how to self arrest after slipping. As long as you stay on route via a path of bamboo wands, crevasses are not a concern. But having had some expereince walking with crampons and the ability to self arrest is also advised, and many seem to have attempted the climb without taking this into consideration.

I don't seek to scare anyone off from Haba. It's a great climb, but having some prior experience or climbing with someone who does is a really good idea. Having worked as a climbing instructor, safety and experience is always a high priority in my mind. Some of the local guides also don't carry and ice axe, but this is also something that I would recommend.